(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 'A dark moment' for the Republican Party [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2023-08-24 Vivek Ramaswamy may have best summed up the inaugural Republican debate on Monday night with this distinctly grim assessment during an exchange with former Vice President Mike Pence. "It's not morning in America, we live in a dark moment," Ramaswamy observed as Pence futilely defended good governance to an audience of Republican nihilists. x Vivek is Trump's mini-me. He leans hard into the gloom and doom, "It is not morning in America. We live in a dark moment. We have to confront the fact that we are in an internal cold culture civil war." #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/1JBPpGp2RJ — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 24, 2023 A dark moment indeed. When Fox News moderators asked the eight Republican candidates on stage whether they would support Donald Trump if he were convicted, most of them anxiously eyed their opponents before sheepishly raising their hands. Watch this profile in courage as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Pence followed the lead of Ramaswamy. x MODERATOR: “Would you still support Trump if he was convicted?” RON DESANTIS: 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZTT5VShqy0 — Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) August 24, 2023 Here's the wide angle: x This was the peak of the debate. The whole right side says says they will pardon trump. Desantis & pence take a look at the other side and slowly raise their hand. Then Christie raises his hand and says he was wagging his finger. I couldn’t stop laughing pic.twitter.com/qXqNbgzWYG — Dylan Wilkerson (@wilkersonadylan) August 24, 2023 Ultimately, six of eight Republican candidates said they would support a man in 2024 who could be convicted of trying to defraud American voters four years earlier. Only former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson declined. It was a relative moment of unity on stage that, like several other key moments, revealed the default position of Republicans as practically disqualifying among a group of dial-in independents tracked by the progressive polling consortium Navigator Research. When it came to the key issues on which the general election will likely be fought—Trump's alleged crimes, fitness for office, and abortion—the Republican crowd's reaction was almost always polar opposite of the dial-in independents. For instance, when Christie looked directly into the cameras and said of Trump, "Someone has got to stop normalizing this conduct," the crowd began booing just as reactions from independents started trending up. "Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong," Christie continued, "the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States." By the time Christie finished, he had cleared 90% among independent women and 80% among independents overall. x Chris Christie SLAMS Donald Trump: “Someone has to stop normalizing this conduct.”#GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/7zrFbOvObl — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 24, 2023 The same was true of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson's assertion that Trump is "morally disqualified" from running for president due to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Watch the independent lines rise during Hutchinson's explanation right as audience boos begin drowning him out. x Asa Hutchinson received immediate acclaim when he doubled-down on his statement that Trump was morally disqualified from being president again. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/puZTX8O4l6 — Navigator Research (@NavigatorSurvey) August 24, 2023 The other side of the coin was Ramaswamy absolutely plummeting with independents as he declared Trump "the best president of the 21st century." The crowd went wild. x VIVEK: "President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century." This statement plummeted Vivek's favor among the dial group. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/DKIvCThapM — Navigator Research (@NavigatorSurvey) August 24, 2023 Republicans also tanked with independents, women especially, as they talked about abortion bans and their "pro-life" values. x As Pence detailed his pro-life values as a leader, dials went negative on the former Vice President. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/RbXZLqIC19 — Navigator Research (@NavigatorSurvey) August 24, 2023 "The dials are absolutely destroying Pence when talking about abortion," tweeted Bryan Bennett, Navigator's senior director of polling. "Independent women dip below 30. This is one of the most consistently unpopular answers of the night." One area of comity: Ramaswamy did momentarily succeed in uniting Navigator's independents and audience members against him when he called climate change a "hoax." x As Vivek Ramaswamy called climate change a “hoax,” our independent dial participants’ attitudes dropped across the board, particularly among women. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/hV8vysdXbc — Navigator Research (@NavigatorSurvey) August 24, 2023 Outside of the MAGA bubble, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley had a good night: She was strong, forceful, and persisted in telling the audience truths they didn't want to hear. "We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America," Haley said at one point. On foreign policy, she took on Ramaswamy for siding with Russia over Ukraine, saying, "You have no foreign policy experience and it shows." x Nikki Haley SLAMS Vivek Ramaswamy: "You have no foreign policy experience and it shows." pic.twitter.com/gZp96T0Wxs — Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) August 24, 2023 Haley needed to reassure high-dollar Republican donors they should keep funding her candidacy, and she likely succeeded. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pounded one more nail into the coffin of his ailing campaign. He sounded like a canned politician awkwardly delivering memorized lines the entire night. DeSantis actually glitched just before delivering his closing statement. x WOAH! DeSantis freezes for a moment and stares awkwardly for a while until Bret Baier reminds him it’s his turn to make his closing argument. After rebooting, Ron jumps into what sounds like a very rehearsed statement, almost like he’s reading. pic.twitter.com/pKzRr0H6I5 — JoMa 🏴 (@joma_gc) August 24, 2023 But inside the MAGA bubble, Ramaswamy—who MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid dubbed "your annoying college roommate"—likely slayed. CNN asked a focus group of more than a dozen Iowa Republicans who won the debate, and only three candidates garnered votes: two for DeSantis, four for Haley, and seven for Ramaswamy. x “Who do you think won the debate?” pic.twitter.com/AqNvilVpYe — Acyn (@Acyn) August 24, 2023 Ramaswamy played the Trump wannabe the entire night. His vision for the Republican Party was Trump's vision, he was an expert bloviator with zero experience, and he shamelessly stole from his political predecessors. During his introduction to the audience, Ramaswamy joked that everybody was wondering, "Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?" Sound familiar? It's a Barack Obama classic from the 2004 Democratic convention speech that launched him into the political stratosphere. x Hey I thought Vivek’s opening sounded a little familiar #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/zwcJTAb6PZ — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 24, 2023 Even Ramaswamy's dark moment was cribbed from Trump's 2017 “American carnage” inauguration speech. In short, Ramaswamy is a phony, a bamboozler, just like Trump. And out of eight candidates on stage, he's the guy who appears to have won over MAGA Republicans. In other words, they chose Trump even though Trump wasn't there. That’s downright ominous. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/24/2189261/--A-dark-moment-for-the-Republican-Party Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/